William Randall DeBarge (born August 6, 1958) is an American R&B/

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

singer and

bass guitarist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low b ...

, best known for being one of the original members of the popular

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

singing family group

DeBarge DeBarge was an American musical recording group composed of several members of the DeBarge family. In addition to various solo projects completed by members of the family, DeBarge was active between 1979 and 1989. The group originally consisted ...

. Randy is also known for singing co-lead and penning lyrics with brother El on the group's first hit, " I Like It" (1982).

Biography

Early years

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

growing up in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is th ...

, Randy was the fourth eldest of ten children born to Robert DeBarge, Sr. and Etterlene DeBarge. The DeBarge kids all sang in church and in high school, Randy joined the local band and learned how to play bass guitar from his elder brother Tommy. When Randy was seventeen, his older brothers Bobby and Tommy formed the

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

-based funk/soul group

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

, later on signing with

in 1977. Three years later, Motown signed Randy, El, Bunny and Mark DeBarge to Motown where they had formed the DeBarges shortening it to DeBarge following the release of their first album in 1981.

DeBarge

After their 1981 debut, ''The DeBarges'' failed to garner any interest, the group decided to write and produce themselves with some help from

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record l ...

's niece Iris, the group released their sophomore release '' All This Love''. After the modest success of the group's funk single, "

Stop! Don't Tease Me "Stop! Don't Tease Me" is a single by DeBarge, released on July 12, 1982 as the first single from their second album, '' All This Love'' on the Gordy ''Gordy'' is a 1994 American family comedy-drama film directed by Mark Lewis, about a livesto ...

", the second single, " I Like It" became their first hit reaching number two on the R&B charts and crossing over to number 31. It was co-led by Randy and El, whose higher vocals carried the rest of the group's releases from then on. Within a year, DeBarge was one of the hottest-selling R&B groups in the world scoring hits such as " All This Love", " Love Me in a Special Way", and " Rhythm of the Night". After both El and sister

Bunny Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...

left for solo careers in 1986, Randy and his brothers recruited oldest brother Bobby to record the group's fifth release, ''Bad Boys'', but due to the record's limited production on the independent Striped Horse label, the record tanked. After a drug conviction befell Bobby and the group's younger brother Chico, the rest of DeBarge disbanded at the end of the eighties.

Later years

A father of five, Randy DeBarge reportedly suffered drug and alcohol addiction but was able to find partial sobriety in the mid-1990s. According to a recent '' JET'' article on the whereabouts of the singing DeBarge family, Randy's mother revealed that DeBarge suffers from an incurable disease that was not fatal. DeBarge currently resides in California. On September 21, 2011, Randy appeared on ''

Lifechangers ''Lifechangers'' was an American half-hour daytime show hosted by Drew Pinsky. It premiered on September 19, 2011, as part of The CW Daytime. Overview The show featured Drew Pinsky and a panel of experts including celebrities and doctors, hel ...

'', a daytime show hosted by

Drew Pinsky David Drew Pinsky (born September 4, 1958), commonly known as Dr. Drew, is an American media personality, internist, and addiction medicine specialist. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show '' Loveline'' from the show's incept ...

The CW Television Network ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. Dr. Drew recommended rehab for drug addiction. Randy entered the rehabilitation program. Randy left 33 days later, against the rehab's and Dr. Drew's recommendation.

Discography

;with DeBarges * ''

The DeBarges ''The DeBarges'' is the debut album of DeBarge, released by Gordy Records on April 6, 1981. It saw limited success and stalled on the charts; the group felt it was not properly promoted. As a result, they revisited ''The DeBarges'' by including t ...

'' (1981) * '' All This Love'' (1982) * ''

In a Special Way ''In a Special Way'' is the third studio album by American R&B group DeBarge, released by Gordy Records on September 24, 1983. It was recorded at Kendun Records in Burbank and Westlake Audio in West Hollywood; written and produced by lead voca ...

'' (1983) * '' Rhythm of the Night'' (1985) * '' Bad Boys'' (1987) * '' Back on Track'' (1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debarge, Randy 1958 births Living people 20th-century African-American male singers DeBarge members American soul singers American funk bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American tenors Musicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan DeBarge family 20th-century American guitarists Singers from Detroit Guitarists from Detroit African-American guitarists